Can solitary consciousness alter external object-aspects?

Giving birth to all dharmas and transforming all dharmas are the functions and operations of the tathāgatagarbha, because the tathāgatagarbha possesses the seeds of all dharmas, whereas the sixth and seventh consciousnesses do not possess the seeds of all dharmas and thus cannot give birth to or transform all dharmas; however, they can influence the tathāgatagarbha and operate in harmony with it, prompting the tathāgatagarbha to give birth to and transform all dharmas. Neither the consciousness accompanied by the five senses (pañca-sahagata-mano-vijñāna) nor the solitary consciousness (mano-vijñāna-eka-citta) can change the external object-aspect or the internal object-aspect, nor can they prompt the tathāgatagarbha to change the internal and external object-aspects; it must be done by conditioning the manas, so that the manas prompts the tathāgatagarbha to give birth to and transform the internal and external object-aspects.

The transformation of the external object-aspect, and even of the internal object-aspect, is not something that any single consciousness can determine; rather, it is the result of the three transformative consciousnesses (parināma) operating in harmony. When the conditions and karmic seeds ripen, only when the three transformative consciousnesses operate together can all dharmas be given birth to, and when the conditions ripen, all dharmas can likewise be transformed. But to change the external object-aspect, the karmic seeds must be changed, and the conditions for changing those karmic seeds must also ripen.

To change the external object-aspect—whether through a short-term rapid change or a long-term gradual change—the two transformative consciousnesses, the sixth and seventh consciousnesses, must be very powerful, causing the karmic seeds within the tathāgatagarbha to change; once the karmic seeds change, the external object-aspect can be changed. If the sixth and seventh consciousnesses lack power, then the consciousness accompanied by the five senses and the manas cannot function to prompt the tathāgatagarbha to change the external object-aspect, and the solitary consciousness and manas in a dream are even less able to change it. What can prompt the tathāgatagarbha to quickly change the external object-aspect must be the sixth and seventh consciousnesses in meditative concentration (samādhi)—best of all, the solitary consciousness and manas in samādhi—whereas a scattered solitary consciousness, the consciousness accompanied by the five senses, and the manas all fail, because they lack power.

The solitary consciousness in a dream can hardly prompt the tathāgatagarbha through the manas to change the external object-aspect, because the mind consciousness is extremely weak, or has no power at all, and there are no concrete karmic actions, so it cannot prompt the karmic seeds to transform; thus the external object-aspect cannot change. Even when awake, the wild imaginings, random thoughts, and deluded thoughts of the solitary consciousness cannot, within a short period, prompt the tathāgatagarbha through the manas to change the external object-aspect, because they are scattered and powerless. However, if the solitary consciousness can concentrate its attention, its deluded thoughts will gain the power to condition the manas, giving the manas the power of choice and prompting the tathāgatagarbha to quickly change the external object-aspect. By means of the manas's thinking and the solitary consciousness's thinking, without bodily or verbal actions, the karmic seeds can also be changed, thereby changing the external object-aspect. Therefore, mental thinking and mental activity are also karmic actions, and they carry karmic retribution.